New York City’s Employees’ Retirement System is staying put in Long Island City, renewing its 35,000-square-foot lease at The Factory, the sprawling former Macy’s warehouse that dominates a full block in the neighborhood. The decision keeps the pension fund on the building’s 10th floor and adds to a run of deals that local brokers say shows there is still real demand for amenity-packed offices outside Manhattan’s core.
NYCERS, which city officials describe as the largest municipal public-employee retirement system in the country, oversees benefits for hundreds of thousands of active members and retirees. According to NYCERS, the system dates back to 1920 and serves a wide range of both uniformed and civilian city workers.
The Factory itself is a 10-story, block-long overhaul of a 1920s Macy’s furniture warehouse, now offering roughly 1.1 million square feet of loft-style office space, according to Atlas Capital Group. Ownership has repositioned the property with full-floor layouts, high ceilings and a slate of tenant amenities aimed at companies that want quick access to Manhattan without paying Manhattan-level rents.
New Leases And Renewals At The Factory
As reported by Commercial Observer, NYCERS renewed its 35,000-square-foot space at 30-30 47th Avenue while a cluster of other deals closed in the building. The City University of New York signed for about 24,000 square feet on the fifth floor, UnitedHealthcare renewed roughly 19,000 square feet on the fourth floor, and Neustadt Gallery and Tosot took approximately 11,500 and 3,200 square feet, respectively. Newmark brokers Brian Waterman, Jordan Gosin and Alex Rosenblum represented the landlords in the negotiations, and asking rents for available space ran from the high $30s to the low $40s per square foot, according to the outlet.
What This Means For LIC Offices
Market watchers say the cluster of renewals and fresh leases at The Factory highlights a niche but solid demand for well-amenitized, conversion-style office space in Long Island City. The building’s recent run of activity, which included about 150,000 square feet of leases announced last fall, suggests landlords are still lining up tenants for flexible, full-floor creative offices in the borough. In October, QNS reported that Atlas Capital announced roughly 150,000 square feet of deals at The Factory as ownership worked to fill space after renovations.
For Long Island City, the latest renewals back up the idea that tenants, especially institutional and education users, continue to see value in large footprints that combine proximity to Manhattan with modern amenities. New York’s office market overall remains uneven, but the recent signings at The Factory offer a clear, if modest, signal that certain types of properties can still compete for tenants that put space, convenience and cost ahead of a Manhattan address.
